"He usually wears green clothes."

Translation: Han brukar oftast ha gröna kläder på sig.

[So1ovei]

Why do you need to use both "brukar" and "oftast" here if they both mean "usually"?

[Zmrzlina]

Although brukar can carry that meaning, it is today most often used for meaning habitually, regularly rather than usually. Thus the use here means that it's a recurring phenomenon, and that it happens often.

[MadelineMc384445]

Thanks! Using the verb "tend to" as the translation of "brukar" would make that much clearer here - as in "he tends to often wear green clothes" (it still feels a little tautological because I'm not sure how far one would habitually do something infrequently, or rather, that would probably be the case where additional clarification were used, but still...).

[devalanteriel]

We actually have tendera for that in Swedish as well. :)

[Ezra746950]

would this be wrong: "Han har vanligtvis på sig gröna kläder." ?

[Arnauti]

No, that's another accepted answer.

[ReinerSelb]

why not "oftast har han på sig gröna kläder"?

[Shanagar1]

Yeah, I'm wondering that too, especially as there's another similar sentence which just uses oftast like that without brukar... 'Oftast lagar vi mat själva'. Why is it not ok this time?

[devalanteriel]

I'll add that. :)

[Kalzani]

Would 'ta gröna kläder på sig' be accepted?

[VeryCoolName]

That would mean that he puts the clothes on.

[deactivated user]

I really don't understand this two words together "brukar oftast". At least in english it sounds really weird. He regularly usually? Also why is ha gröna kläder på sig instead of har gröna kläder på sig? Tack.

[garpike]

'Brukar' is the conjugated verb here (unlike English 'usually'), so 'ha' is in the infinitive form (much as it is in 'vill ha', etc.). I think an overly-literal rendering would be something like 'he makes use most often to have green clothes on himself'.

[kmoriley]

Just out of curiousity, how would you say bright orange like the neon orange colour? I get this would be the syntax but not sure if there's even a word for it.

[Arnauti]

Bright orange would be klarorange and neon orange neonorange. The problem with orange in Swedish is that it a little uncomfortable in the plural since it doesn't really fit the pattern. The recommended spelling in the plural is orange: orange kläder but orangea kläder is also acceptable.

[ClarkJensen21]

why ha instead of har?

[Arnauti]

brukar is the verb that shows time here, and you can only have one of those in a sentence. Compare to how you use like in English: he likes to wear green clothes – the s is on like, not wear.

[GlennaJo]

Tack for yet another explanation with an example can understand. Growing up in the era of experimenting with teaching my class missed learning more than the basic grammar terms in favor of "learning by doing". That was fine until I started learning other languages in a more formal setting. (I learned most of my German while living in Hamburg.)

[ClarkJensen21]

Why "ha" instead of "har"? It sounds wrong to me

[devalanteriel]

brukar is a verb in Swedish, so you need the infinitive for the verb that follows it.